Comfortably Numb
by Trinity Everett
Summary: Post Day 5 - Someone is waiting for Palmer to get off the plane. David Palmer, Anne Packard


Title: Comfortably Numb

Fandom: 24

Characters: David Palmer/Anne Packard, Nicole Palmer, Keith Palmer

Spoilers: Day 5 most importantly, but some for Day 3 as well.

Word Count: 839

Category: Angst

Rating: PG

Summary: He said he was coming home. He said he was coming back. He said he would be with her until they were both old and gray.

Author's Notes: I've had this idea in my head since my Great 24 Rewatch Summer '07. I'm just now getting around to writing it.

* * *

A comfortable numbness has set in. 

She supposes it's a blessing, that numbness. As she stands on the tarmac in the freezing cold with one arm wrapped around the shoulders of a girl entirely too thin and frail for her twenty-seven years, and the other clasped between the fingers of the girl's older brother, she's almost grateful to have had the shock set in. Otherwise, she might worry about the way Keith is crushing her hand, or that she can't feel her toes behind the thin leather of her pumps.

She's never been particularly close to his children, or to the rest of his family, but now she is as close to a parent as they have left. Their mother is dead, now their father too. For today, she is all they have. She is the one who stood beside David at Nicole's college graduation; Keith's as well when he completed his master's. She has been their father's partner for just over three years, and she's the one they've looked to for comfort today.

He came to her, she remembers, the night after Sherry was killed. She'd already flown back to Washington, needing to be away from, well, him, and so she was startled when his heavy hand requested entry. He'd been a mess, but somehow he held himself together long enough to step inside and request that his lone secret service officer remain at the door. She held him that night, as he poured out his grief at his own failures - as a parent, as a husband, as a leader - in her arms. He left as soon as he got a hold of himself, touching her cheek with a large, gentle hand and thanking her quietly. She didn't see him again, not in person, until he left office seven months later.

The evening after President Keeler was sworn in he appeared at her door again, a bouquet of bright yellow flowers clenched in one fist while the other was shoved nervously in his pocket. When she opened the door, he stammered like a little boy, awkwardly thrusting the flowers at her before he managed to compose himself and request the pleasure of her company for a home-cooked meal in his new town home at her earliest convenience. She'd always thought she might be in love with him, but when he took her hand and helped her down the stairs of her apartment that night, complimenting her on her dowdy 'nowhere to go tonight' outfit and assuring her that the brown paper bags his groceries came in would look gorgeous on her… she thought he might finally be able to be in love with her, too.

The wind picks up, flinging icy coldness across the three of them as they wait. Everyone else is inside or under a portico, taking as much shelter as they can from the wind and the chill. There has been no discussion of doing the same; Keith hasn't said more than five words, and Nicole's tears have only dried when she's succumbed to the short, painful hours of sleep the three of them stole early this morning after receiving word that their loved one would soon be on his way. They are here until he is as well. She is just thankful the press has been cordoned off to where their excited chattering is simply a murmur in the back of her ear. This is private. This is theirs.

Nicole jumps as his plane flies low over their heads, landing on the runway almost directly to their right. Although she starts to tremble as the aircraft taxis nearer, the fragile young woman remains calm. Apart from the nearly imperceptible tightening of his hand around hers, Keith too, seems unaffected.

Her eyes sting, and not from the cold, as the honor guard disembarks the plane. Once she was fascinated by the ceremony, by their tight, yet fluid movements, but no more. Now she never wants to see another uniform again.

Two days ago. She spoke to him two days ago, listening to his promises to be home soon from his visit with his brother. Wayne never had liked her, and when David wanted him to be the first one to read his memoirs, she'd refrained from making the trip. Now she wishes she had, if only to have been able to spend one more day with him; to sleep engulfed in his arms one last time.

Nicole loses it when his casket comes into view, turning into her as she sobs, and it is all she can do to keep her almost-daughter upright as she watches the nine men carry the love of her life across the tarmac. Keith turns away, unable to bear witness, and she feels the subtle shake of his body communicated through their handhold.

He said he was coming home. He said he was coming back. He said he would be with her until they were both old and gray.

He isn't.

And she is no longer comfortably numb.

Est fini


End file.
